![]() In “Duet,” the song requires two voices that sing the same lyrical lamentations of affection, bond, pain, challenging circumstances and hope. Now, how dare they put my hero down! I went out of the room and phoned my guardian (Dolores Feria).” Whenever somebody would look down on me as a Filipina, I would ask them if their country had ever produced a hero like Rizal who knew ‘everything.’ I even pasted Rizal’s posters in my bedroom. I learned about Rizal and other stories about the Philippines from my parents as a little girl in China. She continued, “I idolized Rizal, and nobody seemed to understand me. I came back to the dorm, and my roommates were still talking about Rizal – a man who they claimed never wanted his country to be independent but fought for the Philippines to be a province of Spain, shame! And a playboy, too, ha!” She wrote: “One time, it seemed that everybody on campus was talking about how unworthy Jose Rizal was as our national hero. One of the articles written by her in the book, Beyond the Great Wall: A Family Journal (which won a National Book Award for biography in 2007) titled “Padlocks, Doors and Dolores Feria” mentioned her idol, Jose Rizal. “DUET (nina Rizal at Bracken)” was also written during Maningning’s research on the Philippine Revolution which took her 6 months. The flowing movement created by the piano mimics the jiggling of a mother’s arm while the cello counterpoints echoes the soothing humming. Lucas likens this song to a mother’s lullaby blissfully humming us to sleep. It was one of the poems written by Maningning during the Rio Alma poetry clinic which she joined right after arriving from China where she was born and spent half of her life from 1972 to 1986. ![]() “Tawag” was written during the period 1986-1990. Lucas followed the form of a traditional Filipino song, ‘kundiman.’ The melody translates memories of longing and love into a nostalgic momentary experience. “Ginugunita Kita,” the poem, was written around 1995-1997 during the time Maningning was doing research on the Philippine Revolution. It feels like I have discovered a new language, a language that speaks directly to the soul.” He added, “for me, the experience in writing the music was really meditative and cathartic at the same time. These are the foundation of Ginugunita Kita’s music.” It spoke and at the same time sang to me poignant thoughts about life, pain and love. The poems of Maningning Miclat are almost melodious that I can hear the music through the poetic images. Each word seemed carefully selected to form a given rhythm that supports its theme. He wrote: “I immediately connected with the words and verses. According to the composer, Jesse Lucas, inspiration came easily to him after reading Maningning Miclat’s “Voice from the Underworld.” The eight poems are: Ginugunita Kita, Tawag, Duet (nina Rizal at Bracken), Kulay sa Bagyo, Ang Naliligaw, A Stare, Verse # 2, and To Catch a Second and Turn it to Forever. The book was a National Book Award finalist for poetry in 2001. Her poems in Chinese earned for her a niche in Chinese poetry, counting her as one of the 39 Top-Rated Women Poets in Chinese anthologized in a book published in Beijing.Įight poems by Miclat set to music by Lucas are in her trilingual book of poetry, “Voice from the Underworld” published by Anvil Publishing, Inc. National Writer’s Workshop, Silliman Writer’s Workshop and Rio Alma Poetry Clinic for her poems in English and Filipino. In 2010, he was elevated to the FAMAS Hall of Fame for Best Music.Born and raised in Beijing, China for the first half of her life, Maningning Miclat grew up to become an accomplished painter in both Chinese and Western genre and a multilingual poet, fictionist and essayist in English, Filipino and Chinese.Ī UP graduate of BS Fine Arts and taking up MA just before her death in 2000, Miclat became a fellow of the U.P. He won Best Music at the 2005 Screamfest International Film Festival in Los Angeles, California. His awards include Gawad Urian, Young Critics Circle, Star, Famas (Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Science), Gawad Tanglaw and Aliw. ![]() He studied composition at the University of the Philippines’ College of Music.įine examples of his work have been adapted by some of the premiere theater and ballet groups of the country, namely: Tanghalang Pilipino of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Dulaang UP, Dramatis Personae, Gantimpala Theater Foundation, Ballet Philippines and the Philippine Ballet Theater. Jesse Lucas is a multi-awarded composer of music for film, television, theater and dance. ![]()
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